Expectant Waiting

Patiently waiting has never been one of my spiritual gifts. As a child, Christmas morning never could come soon enough, big holidays and celebrations were always too far away, and the new super hero movies never came out as quickly as I wanted. Advent is a season not just of waiting, but of expectant waiting. During this season we, like John the Baptist, actively “prepare the way of the Lord” (Mark 1:3) as we wait for the Christ Child to be born anew into our lives. Much like expectant parents preparing for a newborn, waiting is not a passive thing that slowly goes by, but is active, engaged, and filled with joyous expectation. There are nurseries to be painted, cribs to be constructed, and diapers to be bought. There are highways to be paved in the wilderness, valleys to be lifted up, hills to be brought low, uneven ground to be leveled, and rough places to be made plain (Isaiah 40:3-4). Our hearts are to be re-tuned and our loves are to be redirected towards the God-made-flesh who comes yet again to meet us in our messy everyday lives. We wait, expectantly, for the coming of our King.

During these weeks of Advent, I will be gathering for evening meals with a group of people from across Wise County who I believe God has called to dream about planting a New Faith Community anchored in First Methodist. As we share holy meals around a dinner table, pray, and dream together, we will be actively engaged in expectant waiting. We know God is being born anew into the lives of people in this community, that the promise of Emmanuel, God-with-Us, will radically transform this world that God so loves. I invite you this Advent to pray with and for us as we expectantly wait for God to be revealed in our lives, in our neighborhoods, and in our world. With the words of Charles Wesley, I continue to watch and pray:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our sins and fears release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

In Christ,
Ricky Harrison